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Why is agricultural productivity low in dry regions? Constraints of Financial Resources and Indebtedness The inputs of modern agriculture are very expensive.Thisresourceintensiveapproachhas become unmanageable for marginal and small farmers as they have very meagre or no saving to invest in agriculture. To tide over these Fig. 3.12 : Roto Till Drill—A modern agricultural equipment, most of such farmers have resorted to availing credit from various institutions and moneylenders. Crop failures and low returns Dependence on Erratic Monsoon from agriculture have forced them to fall in the Irrigation covers only about 33 per cent of the trap of indebtedness. cultivated area in India. The crop production in rest of the cultivated land directly depends on rain. Poor performance of south-west What are the implications of severe monsoon also adversely affects the supply of indebtedness? Do you feel that the recent incidents of farmers’ suicides in canal water for irrigation. On the other hand, different states of the country are the the rainfall in Rajasthan and other drought- proneareasistoomeagreandhighlyunreliable. result of indebtedness? Even the areas receiving high annual rainfall Lack of Land Reforms experience considerable fluctuations. This makes them vulnerable to both droughts and Indian peasantry had been exploited for a long floods. Drought is a common phenomenon in time as there had been unequal distribution of thelowrainfallareas,whichmayalsoexperience land. Among the three revenue systems occasional floods. The flash floods in drylandsoperational during British period, i.e., of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan in Mahalwari, Ryotwari and Zamindari, the last 2006 and 2017 are examples of this onewasmostexploitativeforthepeasants.After phenomenon. Droughts and floods continue to Independence, land reforms were accorded priority, but these reforms were not be the twin menace in Indian agriculture. implemented effectively due to lack of strong Low productivity political will. Most of the state governments avoided taking politically tough decisions The yield of the crops in the country is low inwhich went against strong political lobbies of comparison to the international level. Per hectare output of most of the crops such as landlords. Lack of implementation of land rice, wheat, cotton and oilseeds in India is reforms has resulted in continuation of inequitous distribution of cultivable land which much lower than that of the U.S.A., Russia and is detrimental to agricultural development. Japan. Because of the very high pressure on the land resources, the labour productivity in Indian agriculture is also very low in Small Farm Size and Fragmentation of comparison to international level. The vast Landholdings rainfed areas of the country, particularly There are a large number of marginal and small drylands which mostly grow coarse cereals, farmers in the country. The average size of land pulses and oilseeds have low yields. holding is shrinking under increasing Land Resources and Agriculture 37 Reprint 2026-27